The United States Constitution & Bill of Rights | “the powers of government may be reassumed by the people, whensoever it shall become necessary to their happiness”

The United States Constitution & Bill of Rights

The Bill of Rights, and Amendments to the Constitution of the United States, as Agreed to by the Convention of the State of Rhode-Island and Providence-Plantations, at South-Kingstown, in the County of Washington, on the First Monday of March, A.D. 1790. … Declaration of Rights. … Amendments to the Constitution of the United States. … In Convention, March 6, 1790. Voted, That the Bill of Rights and Amendments proposed to the Federal Constitution, be referred to the Freemen of the several towns, at their meetings on the Third Wednesday of April next, for their consideration. That one copy thereof be sent to each Town Clerk in this State, one to each Member of the Convention, and one to each Member of the Upper and Lower Houses of Assembly; and that they be sent to the Sheriffs of the several Counties, to be distributed. The foregoing is a true Copy. By Order of the Convention, Daniel Updike, Secretary. [Providence: John Carter, 1790]

Folio letterpress broadside (440 x 350 mm, untrimmed). Text in three columns with five-line headline, endorsed on the verso, directing this copy to the town clerk of Portsmouth; some short separations and minor wear at old folds, some reinforced on verso, some light browning and mottled foxing. Matted, framed, and glazed.

With the Constitution already ratified and the Bill of Rights not only proposed but adopted by seven of the necessary nine states, Rhode Island continues to try to make her voice heard.

The present remarkable and very rare broadside shows Rhode Island, wary of entering a compact with larger states that she feared would threaten her independence, suggesting reforms to a Constitution that she had not yet agreed to abide by.

Rhode Island was the only state not to send delegates to the Constitutional Convention in 1787. When asked to convene a state ratification convention, Rhode Island’s leaders instead sent the question of to the individual towns for a vote.

When on 21 June 1788, New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify the Constitution, the new federal government was set in motion. In September the Confederation Congress certified that the new Constitution had been ratified by more than enough states for it to go into effect (Virginia and New York had ratified in the interim). The opening of the First Congress on 4 March 1789 and the inauguration of President George Washington on 30 April signaled a new system of federal government

Among the first pieces of business taken up by the newly elected representatives and senators was the perceived deficiency of the Constitution in lacking a bill of rights. In late September, after four months’ consideration, the Congress proposed twelve amendments to the Constitution. On 2 October President Washington sent the amendments as a one-page engrossed manuscript to the states for their adoption. Over the next two years, all of the state legislatures considered the amendments—even Rhode Island, which had not yet ratified the Constitution, although she was ostensibly bound by it.

Finally, faced with threats of secession by Providence, Newport, and Bristol, a well as a Congressional ban on trade with the state, Rhode Island leaders gathered in convention and debated the proposed Constitution. They decided to propose a Bill of Rights and amendments and send the Constitution and their amendments to the towns of Rhode Island before taking a final vote.

When the Rhode Island legislature convened on 11 January 1790, the delegates understood that Congress had set 15 January as the date when economic sanctions against Rhode Island would begin if the state had not called a ratifying convention. On that date, the lower house passed a convention bill by a vote of 34 to 29, but the upper house rejected it the following day by a vote of 5 to 4. The next day, the lower house passed another convention bill, and again the upper house rejected it. In an extraordinary session on Sunday, 17 January, the House of Deputies passed its third convention bill by a vote of 32 to 11, and the House of Magistrates divided evenly 4 to 4, as one of the opposing members was absent. Governor John Collins, who was friendly to the Constitution, cast the deciding vote in favor of calling a convention.

The freemen of Portsmouth met at the house of Robert Fish on 27 February 1790, in a town meeting to discuss the Constitution. The freemen chose Burrington Anthony (1745–1824), Job Durfee (1735–1810), Giles Slocum (1750–1826), and Peter Barker (1765–1852) as delegates to the upcoming Convention from the Town of Portsmouth. The town meeting adopted a lengthy preamble and the following instruction, “you are hereby required and directed, to proceed, as speedily as may be to the said State Convention … there and then to use all your Influence & Ability, in order to accomplish the Adoption of the said Constitution, & that, in as short a Time as the Nature of the Business will admit, so that the Town you represent, and the State at large, may no longer suffer the Injuries mentioned by the Legislature: and which we too sensibly feel the truth of.” The town meeting also urged their delegates to prevent any adjournment. (Proceedings of Town Meeting in Portsmouth, February 27, 1790, Proceedings of Town Meetings and Instructions to Town Delegates, May 1790, Rhode Island State Digital Archives.)

The Convention of seventy delegates convened in South Kingstown, Rhode Island on 1 March 1790. A committee drafted and reported this “Bill of Rights and Amendments to the Constitution of the United States.” Federalists wanted to vote on the Constitution, but the leaders of the Country party wanted to delay the vote. On 6 March, the Convention voted 41 to 28 to adjourn without taking a vote on the Constitution and reconvene in Newport eleven weeks later, after the spring elections. All four delegates from Portsmouth voted with the majority for adjournment, which was forced by the Antifederalist Country party in order to preserve the dominance of their party in state office. But before adjournment, the proposed bill of rights and amendments were ordered to be printed and sent to the towns for the freemen to consider on 21 April, the annual election day.

The present broadside—ESTC cites only three other copies, all in institution—records the eighteen declarations of rights and eighteen amendments to the Constitution proposed by the Rhode Island Convention for discussion and voting by the freemen in each town in the state, who would then instruct their delegates on how to vote. Eleven of the eighteen statements of rights were taken verbatim from the twenty statements proposed by the Virginia Ratifying Convention on 27 June 1788 (a copy of which was sent to Rhode Island and the eleven other states), and six more draw heavily from those proposed by that convention. Only the third statement of rights of the Rhode Island Convention—beginning “That the powers of government may be reassumed by the people, whensoever it shall become necessary to their happiness …”—varies substantially from the Virginia proposals. Three of the eighteen proposed amendments are also taken verbatim from or closely follow amendments proposed by the Virginia Convention. Perhaps the most striking of the amendments proposed here is the seventeenth, which stated: "As a traffic tending to establish or continue the slavery of any part of the human species, is disgraceful to the cause of liberty and humanity—that Congress shall, as soon as may be, promote and establish such laws and regulations, as may effectually prevent the importation of slaves of every description into the United States."

The freemen of the Town of Portsmouth, to whom this copy of The Bill of Rights and Amendments to the Constitution was sent, met on 26 April 1790. They passed the following instructions: “That it is the sense of this Town Meeting, that the Instructions given to their Delegates at the State Convention, held at South Kingstown the first Monday in March last past, be ratified, and again Recommended to the Delegates in order to Regulate their conduct at the Meeting of the adjournment of the said Convention, which is to meet at Newport the fourth Monday in May next, with this additional Instruction—that they do not by any means agree to another adjournment, but at said next Meeting Use all their Influenced and abilities to have the New Constitution as proposed by Congress agreed to and Ratified by this State.” These directions are signed by Abraham Anthony Jr. (1746–1829), Portsmouth’s town clerk. (Proceedings of Town Meeting in Portsmouth, April 26, 1790, Proceedings of Town Meetings and Instructions to Town Delegates, May 1790, Rhode Island State Digital Archives.)

On 18 May 1790, the U.S. Senate barred all American ships from entering Rhode Island and all Rhode Island ships from entering other states. Commerce by land was likewise restricted under penalty of forfeiture of goods, a fine of $500, and imprisonment not exceeding six months. In addition, the Senate demanded that Rhode Island pay $25,000 to the United States by 1 December for its share of the expenses under the Articles of Confederation. The threat of these penalties spurred Rhode Island to action.

The second session of the 1790 Convention met in Newport on 24 May. There was little action for several days, and the 27 May issue of The Newport Herald editorialized, “By the Adoption we have nothing to lose, but every thing to gain; By a Rejection we stab Commerce at its vitals, force the Farmer to hide the fruits of his labour in a napkin, and leave our Government like an isolated Column, tottering at the smallest breeze, and exposed to be thrown from its base, by every tempest.” After the defeat of a motion to adjourn by opponents of the Constitution, the Convention voted on ratifying the Constitution and amendments proposed by Congress. Rhode Island ratified the Constitution on 29 May—the last state to do so—by a vote of 34 to 32, with five Antifederalists voting to ratify and four not voting. (Ten previous similar conventions held in Rhode Island had all rejected the proposed U.S. Constitution, most by overwhelming margins.)

From Portsmouth, Burrington Anthony and Peter Barker voted for the Constitution, but Giles Slocum was the only delegate from Newport County to vote against it. The Convention also passed the eighteen articles of the Bill of Rights and a series of twenty-one recommended amendments. (The amendments approved by the Convention did not include the eighteenth printed here and included the following additional amendments: “18. That the State Legislatures have power to recall, when they think it expedient, their federal Senators, and to send others in their stead. 19. That Congress have the power to establish an uniform rule of inhabitancy, or settlement of the poor, of the different States throughout the United States. 20. That Congress erect no company with exclusive advantages of commerce. 21. That whenever two members shall move that the yeas and nays, on any question, be taken, the same shall be entered on the journals of the respective Houses.”)

Convention President Daniel Owen, who opposed ratification, immediately sent word to President George Washington that Rhode Island had ratified the Constitution, though he withheld sending the formal instrument of ratification until June 15 in an attempt to have antifederalists appointed as federal revenue officers. After the formal ratification was received, Washington responded on 19 June with congratulations that may have been tempered by some exasperation: “I take this opportunity of offering you my sincere congratulations upon this event, which unites under one general Government all the branches of the great American family; and I doubt not but it will prove as auspicious to the good people of your State as it is pleasing to other parts of the Union” (The Papers of George Washington, Presidential Series, ed. Twohig, et al., 5:536–37).

Curiously, this document records that the Convention adopted “the amendments proposed by Congress, in March, A.D. 1789,” except for the second article. And although it was the last to ratify the Constitution itself, Rhode Island approved eleven of the twelve amendments on 7 June 1790, making it the ninth state to ratify the ten amendments that became the Bill of Rights.

A fascinating relic of the debate about ratification and a cornerstone document from the last of the thirteen colonies to join the United States.

REFERENCE:

Evans 22845; ESTC 36278 (locating one copy at the Huntington Library and two at the American Antiquarian Society); Alden, Rhode Island Imprints 1202